


A day in your life

by reveetoile



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Magical Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-29 21:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13935969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reveetoile/pseuds/reveetoile
Summary: Ohno is a star and visits Earth once a year for a special festival. It’s there that he meets Nino.





	A day in your life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rainbow_teatime (peachymintyskies)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachymintyskies/gifts).



> This was written for the Ohno-Exchange 2017. I know it didn't officially end yet. But I honestly got annoyed with waiting for now almost two months with nothing happening in that community. So I told the mods that I will go ahead and post my stories written for there. Here is the first one:  
> Dear rainbow_teatime, I hope you’ll like this story. I had fun writing it and I tried to write a fluffy story with lots of kisses, just as you wished. Sadly, no NC-17 scenes but it just didn’t fit completely. Thanks a lot to our dear mod for making this exchange possible and of course to my lovely beta and all the girls that helped me finishing this when I was on the verge of giving up.

Star 3104 - the one that called himself Ohno - was excited for today. He had twenty-four hours to meet and mingle with people. It was the big star festival today, the one day in a year that he was close enough to earth to visit. Twenty-four hours were all he had, and he wanted to make the best of it. 

Normally all Ohno did was watching. It wasn’t much that he could do on this small star he was upon. He could watch the planets, the other stars and of course Earth. He liked watching the humans there and the lives they had. They were chaotic but also so, so lively, so Satoshi loved being able to visit during the festival.

“Are you excited, my child?” he heard and smiled when a figure materialised in front of him. 

“Mother,” he greeted her and closed his eyes when she came closer to take his face into her hands, kissing his forehead and cheeks. 

She smiled and stepped back a little to look him over once. “You have grown up so much,” she mumbled a little bit sad. Ohno knew that his mother felt bad for him. She couldn’t be with him for long periods of time. His mother had always wanted a child, but as the personification of a star constellation, she couldn’t bear one. One day, she had heard the prayer of a human woman - a woman who desperately wanted a child. Moved by their shared suffering, his mother had gone to that woman. 

They made a deal: The human woman would bear the constellation’s child. His mother would have been content just to watch him grow up down on Earth as one of the humans, but… it wasn’t to be.

The woman’s (his human mother’s, he supposed, though he could barely remember her) husband had been convinced the child wasn’t his, that his wife had cheated on him. One day, in a fit of rage, he had killed his wife and tried to drown Ohno. His constellation-mother couldn’t let that happen. It was too early for her to see him die. So she came down and put him on this small planet he was on now, a star in his own right.

“You are lost in thoughts again,” she scolded him, amused, and he shrugged. 

“Just thinking.” 

She sighed. “I wished I could give you more but a day is all I can offer you, sadly,” she whispered. 

He just nodded. He knew. Because her taking him here had meant that he wouldn’t be able to survive on earth for more than a day. Ohno didn’t really understand why. But he also didn’t really care either. All that was important to him was that he had this. 

A day in a year. 24 hours.

 

Ohno straightened his kimono and the mask when he appeared at the temple for his mother in Japan. He visited it each year to thank his mother for his life before he would attend the festival of the stars. 

It was a day where almost all people wore traditional clothing and masks that were finely decorated with stars and planets. A long time ago, that had been so that for just one day everybody was the same; no rank was dividing the people on that day. But that meaning had been lost over the centuries. Only the clothing and masks were left now. 

Maybe it was strange that he still wanted to visit Japan - the place he was born and almost killed - but it felt right. He liked to stroll through the small streets and look at all the lights. He also loved the music, the laughter and the playing kids. It was this liveliness that he missed sometimes. 

Ohno was so focused on the children in front of the temple who were playing a game of tag that he was startled when a young man ran into him.

“Ouch,” Ohno groaned when he landed on his butt and held his chin where he had been hit by a head. 

The other man groaned himself and rubbed his head with an almost whine. “Ah, shit… Oh uhm… I’m sorry,” he mumbled and bowed down a few times after he scrambled off Ohne and back up. 

Ohno blinked and needed a few moments until he could look up and meet the eyes of the stranger. 

“Are you hurt?” the stranger asked in a worried tone and held out his hand to help him up. 

“No, I’m fine. I didn’t see you,” Ohno mumbled, letting himself be hefted up. He frowned when he saw that the ears and the bit of the cheek he could see went red. 

“No it’s my fault,” the man sighed. His eyes went to the big clock on the grand tower and widened in shock. “I’m sorry, I have to hurry,” he mumbled and bowed once more. 

The stranger was about to turn around and run again when Ohno grabbed his hand. 

“Wait!” he asked before he realised what he was doing. The stranger was turning back to look at him questioningly - and Ohne didn’t actually know what he wanted to say. It was strange. He wasn’t used to being that fascinated by a person. But the other seemed somehow otherworldly - and that meant something for Ohno who wasn’t really from this planet himself and had seen a lot already in his life. 

The stranger’s dark hair was tousled from their collision and a stark contrast to his pale skin. His skin was almost the same ebony colour his mother had. Ohno tried to focus but was once again drawn in by his eyes - which now had a tiny amused spark in it Ohno realised. At least the other didn’t seem annoyed by Ohno’s muteness or at being held back without any real reason. The eyes were honey coloured and had a warmness that made Ohno’s fingers tingle. He wished he could look at them without the mask obscuring them.

 

The man tugged at his hand to get it free and grinned when Ohno looked down at their hands again. He had forgotten that he had grabbed it. He loosened his grip quickly and wanted to apologise when the other chuckled. 

“I would like to continue to stare at you or give you the opportunity to do the same to me, but I really need to go. I’m almost late for the opening,” he explained and readjusted a strap on his shoulder. Ohno’s eyes followed the movement and realised that the other probably belonged to the small music group that opened the festival yearly. 

“May I come with you?” Ohno found himself asking and tried not to groan about how that sounded. 

“Since the ceremony is open for all,” the other giggled and took Ohno’s hand into his own now to pull him along back to the temple entrance. Ohno looked at their intertwined fingers and couldn’t help the smile that appeared on his lips. 

 

After the show, which was nice as always, Ohno waited at the exit for the musicians. He was curious about the stranger that ran into him that morning. Also, he had realised during the ceremony that he didn’t even know the other’s name. 

He had gotten lost in his thoughts again and jumped a little bit when he felt someone touching his shoulder. “What?” 

There was again that amused chuckle and Ohno turned around just to be face to face with those twinkling eyes once more. 

“I was wondering if you would notice if I just walked past you and disappeared. But then I thought it would be just too cruel now…”

“Oh. Uhm… Thank you?” 

“You are welcome.” 

Ohno looked at the other who was watching him expectantly. 

Finally, the other giggled and shook his head. “Ah, so stubborn. You may call me Nino if you would tell me your name so that we could go and, I don’t know, grab a coffee or something.”

“Ohno,” he said hastily, and Nino blinked surprised by his loud answer.

Ohno was so not used to talking to people, and he felt a bit stupid, but luckily for him, Nino didn’t mention his awkwardness, just nodded. 

They entered a small café not much later, and Ohno looked around curiously. He had never visited one after all. This one was decorated in slight purple colours, and Nino led him to a table almost all the way at the back, where Ohno sat on one of the big sofas. “What do you want to drink?” Nino asked, and Ohno fought a blush. 

“I don’t have money on me,” he confessed and averted his eyes, a bit ashamed. He’d never needed money, and he didn’t really do anything to earn it. 

Nino’s eyes widened in surprise, but soon there was a smile on his face again. 

“You better don’t joke around, old man,” he chided, and Ohno did pout a bit at that phrasing.  
He wasn’t that old - at least his body was not - but he couldn’t really argue. Nino was probably an infant in comparison, considering how many years he was older in actual lived years. Ah, better not think about it that way, Ohno concluded and shrugged when he realised that Nino was still in waiting for an answer.

“My treat then. Just for today, though. But since I will pay I will choose,” Nino decided and left for the counter. 

Ohno felt his cheeks heat up and hid his face in his hands. What the hell was he doing?

 

Nino was by far not the only human encounter he had had in the last years. He had met a lot for a day, for a night or even only for a few hours. He had liked them all a lot. Back when people believed more in Gods and such things he even had some people he met up with every year. He had watched them grow old and then die, had even watched over their children and grandchildren. 

Over the last years, the encounters had become fewer. He was not good at flirting, and somehow the thought of one-night-stands wasn’t that alluring anymore. So he tended to just observe the humans around him. 

Nino was somehow different. He wanted to get to know him better. Ohno sighed and watched the young man talking to the man behind the counter and then tapping a rhythm on the counter while he waited for their drinks. 

Nino came back and put a mug in front of him. “For you.”

Ohno thanked him quietly and sniffed at it curiously. It smelled like coffee with a hint of chocolate. Carefully, he tried a sip and nodded contently. “It’s good,” he mumbled and was gifted with a bright smile. 

His heart skipped a beat, and Ohno fast concentrated on the hot beverage again. 

Nino settled down across from him and was drinking his drink for a while in silence as well. Then he laughed a little. Ohno looked up again, and Nino smiled brightly at him. 

 

“This is all so awkward. Like, what the hell? I don’t even know you, and yet I am peacefully sitting here with you drinking coffee without talking.” He shook his head. “Want to play twenty questions?”

Ohno thought about it but shook his head in the end. “No.” 

“No?”

“No. Could we just... Today it’s supposed to be anonymous, right? The festival, I mean.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Can we spend it together? Just like that?”

The twinkle appeared in Nino’s eyes again, and Ohno was shocked when he realised why it seemed so familiar. It just looked like the stars he watched all day, just that Nino’s eyes were more golden than white.

“Just one question, then: Are you some lunatic who is out to lure me to your home to kill me?”

Ohno’s eyes widened in shock, and he opened his eyes to deny this very strongly and loudly when the other began to laugh. 

“Sorry. Of course, we can spend the day together at the festival. Then drink up! I think we should head to the site.”

 

Thanks to Nino, Ohno spent the whole day participating in the festival. Normally, he was the one looking on as other people tried out the different games and the delicious food. Only seldomly would Ohno try out the games himself and he could only eat the food if it were for free - which was fine. As a star he didn’t have to eat, he just liked to taste all the different things. 

In the old-fashioned games, Ohno was able to beat Nino a few times, but he realised quickly that Nino was an expert when it came to electronic games. He made them play all of them and more often than not just laughed at Ohne for his attempts at winning prizes.

“I can’t believe you are so bad at this,” Nino giggled again after he got the stuffed toy he was aiming for with a play gun and looked around for the little girl who had asked her daddy to try for her - luckily for Ohno he wasn’t the only bad at those games. “Here you go,” Nino mumbled as he handed the toy over. Ohno had observed that Nino only kept a small keychain for himself and gave most of the things away. 

Nino lifted his arms into the air and pulled slightly at his mask with an annoyed ‘tsk’. It was something Nino did a lot as well. Ohno was making observations about the other without meaning to. He had wanted to enjoy today, and he was - but he couldn’t help making sure to remember little things about the other: the way his hair was slightly sticking out at his left ear, the frown on his forehead whenever he was concentrating on a game and the slight tilt of his lips whenever he won. 

“Why don’t you keep the prizes?” Ohno asked, finally.

Nino looked at him in surprise. It was confusing him how often Nino looked at him like that. He didn’t think his questions were that strange. 

“Because they would become a hassle if we had to carry them with us, wouldn’t they? And I don’t need them. There are other people who are happier at getting them, like that little girl. Look how overjoyed she is,” Nino explained.

Ohno nodded slowly as he watched the small girl skipping away happily with the teddy in her arms. “But why play then?”

“Because it’s fun,” Nino laughed and nudged him softly. “Don’t you think? At least you seem to have fun to play twenty questions by yourself,” he teased. 

Ohno blushed softly at those words. He didn’t even realise that he had begun to ask questions again and again. Nino had reminded him of that several times now.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, but Nino shook his head and closed his hand around Ohno’s again when they entered a space of the market that was full of people. 

“Where to now?” Ohno asked.

“To eat. I’m hungry,” Nino decided and tugged him along to look at the different stalls until he decided on one that sold Chinese street food. “Stay,” Nino ordered and pointed at one of the tables. There weren’t many free ones, and since Ohno still hadn’t any money to offer to pay with, he nodded mutely and sat down on the fold up chair to make sure that nobody else would take that table. He was very glad that Nino had offered to pay for everything so far without question, even if he felt bad for it at the same time.

Nino was once again talking animatedly with the person behind the corner. He seemed to know a lot of people here, Ohno thought. At least Ohno had seen him talking to a lot of people, and everyone called him ‘Nino’. It was refreshing to belong to the people Nino knew. That way nobody spared him a second glance. 

“And you are lost in your thoughts again,” he heard Nino’s voice when the other put the food on the table and sat down, this time besides of him. “Sorry, I don’t want to have the people in my back and pushing against my head while walking. Elbows are sharp,” Nino explained without preamble and nudged Ohno with his elbow as if to prove a point. 

Ohno made a funny grimace at that action and held his side while whining as if it had hurt, which brought another spell of laughter over Nino. 

Ohno grinned happily at being the reason for that reaction. Nino was pretty cute when he laughed unguarded and free like that. 

They settled down comfortably and began to eat. Ohno was pleased to see how well they fit like that. Now that the awkwardness of the morning had gone, it was as if they had known each other for weeks or months already. Nino finished his food before Ohno and leant back to hum the song ‘mikazuki’ under his breath, and Ohno closed his eyes for a moment at that familiar song. His mother had sung a variation of it long long ago for him when he was still small. The lyrics were a little bit different from what his mother sang, but the melody was almost the same.

“Are you finished?” Nino asked finally. 

“Yes, it was really good.” 

Nino grinned as brightly as if the meal had been cooked by himself. “I will tell the chef. He will be happy,” he declared and got up to bring away the plates and talk with the guy behind the counter once again before coming back to Ohno so that they could walk around a little bit more. 

 

“The day is almost over,” Nino observed, watching the sky turning slightly pink. 

Ohno felt a pang in his chest when he realised that he had only the night left now. Half of his time seemed to have gone by so fast. 

“Nobody around seems to know you,” Nino said.

Ohno looked up at those words and tilted his head a little bit.

“It’s not that big of a town. I had an inkling you were a stranger when I first saw you. I couldn’t remember if I met you before. But the masks are throwing you off, you know?” Nino explained, readjusting his own again.

Ohno looked around and at the other people. “That is what this is all about. For mingling together without caring for who is who,” he mumbled.

Nino laughed, bright and loud.

“True. Even if it is hard to believe now, ne? Everyone wears masks that are so nicely painted or decorated that they look completely different.” 

Ohno hummed in an answer and frowned a little. He tried to remember if that had been different once upon a time. But those memories were blurred. What he remembered were things he had paid attention to, the sparkling eyes, the laughter, the feeling of lips against his.

Nino had led him out of the sea of people without him realising, so now nobody was running into him. 

It was as if time stopped. 

The only thing for Ohno was Nino. Nino close enough to hold close. Nino smelled slightly like sandalwood. The masks that were pressing against each other, but Ohno didn’t mind that. The slight rustling noises they made helped him to concentrate on what was happening.  
Ohno’s eyes had fallen shut on their own, which he only noticed when he opened his lips at sharp teeth pulling at them. Soon enough the pain was soothed by a warm tongue that found its way into his mouth to start a dance with his own. Nino’s lips tasted sweet - which was strange after they had eaten all that Chinese stuff, but it made it all even better. 

A breath more and Nino stepped back. 

Astonishment ran through Ohno, and he opened his eyes slowly, licking his lips to catch the hint of Nino’s lingering sweetness on them before he was able to look back at Nino. His heart was beating faster, and he put a hand there as if to stop it or hold onto this moment. Even Ohno wasn’t sure what he really wanted. 

A memory from long ago fought its way to the surface of his mind. Of kisses shared like this, soft caresses and the smell of sandalwood. But he was sure he had never met Nino before. He would never have forgotten those eyes. He opened his mouth a few times to say something, anything. Nino seemed so expectant, but no words seemed to fit. So he just continued looking at the other without saying a word.

Ohno wanted to ask who the other was. Why there was such familiarity with him. But he didn’t dare. He was the one who told Nino to not talk about personal things. He shouldn’t be the one to break that. Or should he?

“Where are we going now?” Ohno asked instead, and Nino shrugged a little, proceeding to lead them out of the section with the food stalls. Once those were behind them, Ohno kind of missed all the different smells but his attention was soon elsewhere. 

Nino had led him to different stalls that sold self-made things from different kind of artists. There were pictures, cups, jewellery and everything one could think of. He looked around in awe and Nino smiled broadly. 

“That wasn’t here last year,” Ohno mumbled.

“So you visited before?” Nino asked curiously. There was a glint in his eyes. 

Ohno thought about their conversation before and grinned, amused when he realised that besides his name he really didn’t tell Nino anything about him. The only things Nino knew about him right now were the things he had already observed for himself. 

“Yes, I visit each year for one day. The festival is longer than that, right?” Nino nodded with a thoughtful expression. 

“A week each year,” he agreed.

Ohno sighed inwardly. A longing was in his chest when he thought about being here for a whole week. But that wasn’t possible. 

“Today is the final day,” Nino explained as if Ohno didn’t know that already. It was that day when he could visit after all. 

“Yes, with the fireworks at the end and the walk to the temple in the morning,” Ohno said with a small, sad smile.

Nino nodded. “So you know about that. Want to stay together until then?” he asked, and Ohno felt panic rising in him for a moment. Staying that long could be wrong. Ohno feared that he got to attached to Nino in that span of time. Or Nino would. And something about Nino still threw him off in a way. Ohno couldn’t put the finger on the reason, though. If Nino wanted to stay until the morning, he might have to tell Nino that he was a star. It could be scary if he just dissolved into stardust without the other knowing that could happen. He would have to tell Nino then. 

He felt a finger on his cheek and looked up into Nino’s kind eyes. “We can stay outside all night and then walk to the temples together.”

“Okay,” Ohno mumbled and then once more, a bit louder this time. 

The smile he got in return was breathtaking. 

They looked around the market for a while until it got dark and the first lights were lit. Nino looked back to Ohno, and even now his eyes seem to have golden sparkles reflecting the light in them. So mesmerising, Ohno thought and hoped never to forget this. 

“Let’s go to the waterside. The fireworks look the best there.” 

“Sounds good,” Ohno mumbled and followed the other as he disappeared between the masses of people who all tried to find a good place to watch. He had to run a bit to keep up with Nino and was surprised how fast the other actually was. In no time at all they were at the riverside, finding a small empty patch there where they could sit. 

 

Ohno didn’t remember much of the fireworks. He remembered how the colourful lights were reflected in Nino’s eyes, on his face, on his mask. His mask seemed to come to life in this darkness with the lights flickering over it, and Ohno had to smile. It looked like home when Nino looked at him. 

Slowly, so slowly, Nino leant over once more and put his lips over Ohno’s in an almost-not-there caress. Ohno carefully got hold of one of Nino’s arms when he tugged him closer and responded to the soft, loving kiss. 

 

Ohno leant back, and Nino carefully climbed on top of him while they still shared kisses and, soon, warm caresses under the folds of their kimonos. Whenever Ohno opened his eyes to look at Nino - and he did that often - he could see the fireworks behind him, illuminating parts of Nino and keeping others in the dark. 

He could hear - not see because he didn’t dare to look anywhere else than Nino, he feared this moment would vanish - people around them applauding when the fireworks ended. The noises they made when they packed up their things and left one after the other. He couldn’t move from his spot. Nino seemed to have put a spell on him that kept him right here underneath the other. 

Nothing else seemed to matter, only Nino’s soft lips. His sweet taste and how red his lips got after rounds and rounds of kissing. 

The stars came up, and Nino leant back for a moment to look up at the sky, the stars being reflected in his eyes. Looking back at Ohne, he smirked. 

“We are all alone now, Ohno,” he whispered.

Ohno felt the knot of his obi being loosened. His kimono fell open, and Ohno just laid back. He looked at Nino, who licked his lips just like the cat who got the cream. Before Ohno realised what he was doing, his hands were around Nino’s. He had to tug him in close again.  
Ohno sighed when he felt the soft, warm and moist mouth on his own again and deepened their kiss as he began undressing Nino to explore more of that smooth white skin under his fingertips.

 

“I wish this night would never end,” Nino whispered in his ear later when they had calmed down again and were now laying side by side by on their discarded clothes. He snuggled closer to Ohno’s warm body, spreading a hand on his naked chest.

Ohno hid his face in Nino’s slightly sweaty hair. “Me too,” he whispered and tried to ignore the pain he was feeling in the area under Nino’s warm hand. Sometimes one day was far too little. 

They stayed silent in each other arms almost the whole night, lost in each other and watching the stars. Sometimes one of them would point out a star formation, and Ohno’s eyes would always go to that one spot where he normally belonged to. He wished to stay here. But he could already hear his mother reminding him to come home. His twenty-four hours were almost gone. 

When the sun began to appear on the horizon, they untangled from each other, though not without small kisses against lips, belly buttons, shoulders, necks or ears. Being with Nino was not bad, Ohno thought. Being with Nino was mostly easy, fun and warm. But that made leaving even harder. 

“Let’s go,” Nino whispered and held out his hand. His mask was still on as was Ohno’s and Ohno wished for nothing more than to tug it off. But somehow they had developed a silent understanding to keep this part of themselves hidden. In a way, Ohno was thankful for that. He didn’t know if he would have been able to leave if he had seen Nino that way. 

 

They entered the temple ground through a hidden door that Nino knew about. Ohno was thankful for it. He was happy that he didn’t have to share those last few minutes with anybody else. Like this, one could think that he and Nino were all alone here. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. It smelled like lilies and sandalwood, a smell that he’d noticed once in the past that he loved. 

He felt a small warm hand on his cheek and was surprised when a thumb caught a teardrop that ran over his cheek. He hadn’t realised that he had begun to cry. 

“Don’t be a crybaby now,” Nino chided, and Ohno opened his eyes. His eyes met Nino’s which glittered like a universe full of stars because Nino seemed to hold on his tears. 

“Says you,” Ohno mumbled, and Nino let out a shaky laugh. 

“Yeah, me. So will you let me see your face?”

Ohno wanted to. He really did. But he wasn’t sure that he would be able to go if that happened, so he shook his head. “I can’t. The day is not up, yet,” he mumbled.

Nino shook his head. “Such a stubborn old man. And even so, I fell in love with you.” 

Nino took a step closer to him and cupped both of his cheeks. His eyes fluttered close, and Ohno let his eyes fall shut, too, when he felt soft, warm lips first on his cheek, then on his chin and lastly, finally, on his lips. He moaned a little at the sweet taste and held onto Nino’s kimono. In the end, Nino took a step back again, only leaving a warm hand on his cheek. 

“Take me with you,” Nino asked, and Ohno’s eyes opened wide. He was shocked. 

“What?”

“I know you could. My grandfather told me,” he mumbled and Ohno was sure that he was blushed again. 

“Wait, what? I can’t follow you,” Ohno said honestly, and Nino fidgeted with his fingers. 

“He told me he met a star once. That star would visit earth once a year, and they liked each other. The star asked him to come with him one year. To live in the stars together. But my grandfather had met my grandmother and yeah... He never saw the star again.”

To say Ohno was surprised was an understatement. He hadn’t asked many people to come with him. He was content on his little planet, mostly. But there had been somebody, one, where he had felt the same kind of longing the first day they met. It had gotten worse over the years, and finally, he had asked. “Your grandfather?” 

Nino nodded and carefully took off his mask to let Ohno see him fully for the first time. There was a splattering of moles - the most distinct one on his jaw that he had kissed and licked more than once today already -, a cute button nose and those mesmerising eyes that seemed even more golden now that they weren’t shaded by the mask anymore. Yes, he remembered now. 

“My name is Ninomiya Kazunari,” Nino whispered, and Ohno’s breath hitched as he remembered laughter, brown eyes - darker than Nino’s but no less sparkling -, warm hands and soft kisses. No wonder Nino’s touches felt familiar. 

“My mother named me after him, Kazuya, the same character but a different reading,” Nino explained. “I grew up with his stories, and I knew the moment I ran into you,” he mumbled with a shy glance into Ohno’s direction. 

Ohno knew he probably should feel cheated or something like that. But he didn’t. It didn’t change much. 

“You are Satoshi, ne? Star 3104?” 

Ohno laughed a little and finally nodded. It was hard to pretend now. 

“You are right. But still… I can’t take you with me,” he mumbled, and Nino’s face fell a bit. 

“Why?”

“Because we just met. I… You… What if you find a human as you should?” Ohno asked and kissed the palm of his hand. Nino was really sweet, but he was worried. 

Nino wanted to disagree but stopped when he saw the hurt in Ohno’s eyes and remembered his grandfather’s words. He sighed and kissed him again. A touch so soft that it was almost not there. 

“Okay, okay. I’ll wait. And I’ll meet you again, and I will make you fall in love with me and then when you believe me, I will come with you.”

Ohno believed Nino even now. But he couldn’t, not yet. “Five years?”

“Five dates?” Nino asked back cheekily, and Ohno laughed. 

“Yes, five dates.”

“I love you,” Nino whispered against his lips as he stepped closer again. 

Ohno wanted to reply to those words, but he felt himself dissolve while Nino was still kissing him. He disappeared, taking the words with him as Nino stepped back and looked at the fading cloud of stardust with a sad smile. Loving a star wasn’t easy. 

 

“Will it hurt?” Nino asked exactly five years later when they stood hand in hand on the very same temple grounds. Ohno looked at him and laughed before taking him into his arms. 

“No, it tickles. Are you sure?” he asked again.

Nino hit him softly. “Yes. And yes I said my goodbyes,” Nino added before Ohno could ask. “I told them we'd meet in a year.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, what now?” 

Ohno grinned at the impatient bundle of nerves Nino was right now and kissed his temple. 

“The sun is coming up.”

“I know.”

“I love you,” Ohno said and before Nino could retort he leant forwards to silence the other’s lips with his own.

He could feel the tingle start in his toes and fingertips, as always. At the slight yelp of Nino that got lost between their lips he knew he felt it as well. 

He looked forward to each new day from now on with Nino by his side.


End file.
